Taking the shorter detour to El Quelite. Fording (not quite) the river

On Thursday we decided to get out and about so we hopped into the Jeep and went to El Quelite. I've mentioned that the bridge over the river on the 15 free road was washed out a couple of years ago during a hurricane. So there has been an official detour. It is the blue line on the map. Well we decided we would take the unofficial detour instead. The red line. It is basically the way we've gone to El Quelite for years, with one exception, Just before the downed the bridge we took the dirt detour. See video below. There is sound.

Here is the video of the dirt road. It is mostly uneventful until after crossing the river. Then it becomes really narrow. Hope not to meet oncoming traffic. Or meet them in a wide area.  Click here to view in full screen.

Going through the arch into El Quelite

I don't remember seeing this house before. So it is new or just remodeled and repainted. 

Got to love the colors. 

All kinds of things to buy. 

The office of the police all decorated for Christmas They used police tape to make the tree. 

Many, many cars and people here during the holidays.  Also lots of vendors.

And don't forget the horses. 

A video from the dash cam of driving through the town looking for some place to park. Click here to view in full screen. I'm glad Bill was driving. 

And so I'll stop here and use the rest of the pictures from that day in another day's blog.

Mazatlan sunset December 29 Part 1 and 2

We had a really great day yesterday. First off we went to El Quelite along for 20 thousand other people. Well it seemed like that many. And after leaving there we went to La Martina for lunch. And last night was a spectacular sunset. I took many, many photos. We have dash cam video of crossing the river to get to El Quelite, driving through town and coming home. Also lots of pictures in El Quelite and some of La Martina. So going to break things up some.

A beautiful sunset over Mazatlan on December 29. Bill took the drone up and got some great video. Bill took four separate videos one after the other. So I am putting a couple here. Before the sun completely sets and after it set with the sky turning red. The is music with them, but it might be annoying., Both videos are a little long but I think worth it. 

Click here to watch the first video in full screen. 

Click here to watch the second and most colorful in full screen. 

Hope you enjoy them. 

Just to get out of house.

 By Wednesday we were sick of staying home. So Bill offered to brave the traffic and off we went towards Centro. This guy is on his bicycle and carrying his unicycle with him. (We later saw him at an intersection preforming during the red lights.)

If you have to ride in a pick up bed you might as well be comfortable. Sitting on their plastic chairs.

Going wasn't too bad until we near where the huge topes had been removed. They are still working there, Looked like they were replacing the curbs so traffic was down to one lane with lots of back up both ways. 

Then on to the Malecon. Not too bad if it weren't for all the trucks stopped delivering stuff to the beach restaurants. This one was delivering crushed ice. 

Into our favorite parking lot right by the Plazuela Machado. Yesterday there was a boat in town too. 

Off we went, first stop was the bakery. I stayed outside watching the non stop traffic. 

Then we headed back towards the Machado. This house used to be PINK. They painted it a couple of years ago. Really decorated and looks like they have a roof garden too. 

This one has just been repainted. Looks very nice. 

This fancy building is a couple of blocks away, so zooming in on it. Need to go down that street again, it is an interesting building. Wonder when it was built and what it was originally. 

A kind of weird poster on a wall. 

Bill had gone into the bank to use the ATM So I was admiring this building. Looking at the picture I just realized a couple of the doors and windows have been boarded up. The building is empty. 

See the tree growing out of the upper window. 

Colorful block. Every parking space in town had a vehicle in it. And between most cars there was a motorcycle parked. Cars from all over the country.

Heading to the Gaia restaurant to eat. I see the upper restaurant had their glass windows closed. Usually they are open and I forget they are there. We sat at the table below the guy in the blue shirt. Right on the sidewalk where we could watch all the people and traffic going by. 

Heading towards home right through the main street in Centro, Saw more people asking for help sitting on the sidewalks then usual. These were from one of the Central American countries. 

The Central Market, very busy. Lots of people waiting for a bus. 

And lots and lots of food and trinket vendors on all the street downtown in Centro. 

Took the back way home. But traffic wasn't much better. Felt good to get out and about. Need to do something today too. Another cruise ship is in today - that makes six this week. 

John we miss you. It's been 16 years and feels like yesterday. Miss your laugh and love of life and that you always called us on birthdays and holidays. 

Paul, John, Randy, Gil, Dennis

Christmas lights in the RV park

We hope everyone had a really nice Christmas and are making it through all the bad weather without too many problems. The sun is coming up here without any clouds this morning. But it is pretty nippy out for us at night. Today should get up to the high 70's and hopefully no wind. Usually between Christmas and until January 6th we don't go very far from the RV park. But I think we are both getting tired of being home so will try to get out and do something today - hopefully away from traffic. 

I walked around the back area of the RV park the other night with the phone and took some video of the Christmas lights. Click here to see it full screen. It also has music. 

Went across the street one morning for breakfast. Just looking at the ocean while eating is nice. 

Saw these rather puzzling sand sculptures. Sombreros? or something else? 

Too early I guess for many people to be up and on the beach. 

They always have nice decorations over there. 

We just got back from Sam's Club and WalMart. Busy places.

This mural is just up the road from WalMart. Hard to get a good picture of it. A lot of railroad stuff in the way. And then it is a bad angle. Best I could get. Sure is colorful. 

Advertisement on a building. 

And that is all we've done.

Christmas Day Mazatlan

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM US TO YOU. 

Bill took his drone up last night. Looking out at the ocean. The moon and Jupiter visible. Click here to view the video in full screen, also turn you sound on. 

Just some random pictures. Haven't been much of any where the last few days, way to many out of town cars on the road. 

He came down out of one tree and went up the other one. Don't know where the other one is. 

Our neighbors decorations. Very cute and colorful.

A Nativity scene we saw. Every thing is made from corn husks. I like the little sheep. 

The rest of the same scene. 

We did go out to breakfast again at La Antigua by us. This time we sat outside on the down stairs back patio. Really nice out there. 

Been reading and relaxing. Still windy here, and the wind is quite cool. 

Had a problem with our microwave. It had power, the clock was working but none of the buttons worked, so we couldn't use it. Well Bill got up at one o'clock this morning and fixed it. The problem? It had become partially unplugged. The two prongs were in the outlet but the grounding prong was not. So I guess for safety reasons it would not work. So he is now officially a genius and angelic. . 

A short trip to Centro

Hard to believe that only 5 1/2 years ago this was all jungle. Now homes as far as you can see.

For the last three years there were very few RVs here in the park. This year it is so good to see more. Right now there are 24 rigs here. Several will be staying the whole winter, some will be moving on south. Back here in the back there are 12 of us. And every one has Christmas lights up. 

Went to put singalong in the Jeep the other day - Price is US $4.25 a gallon. Part of that is lower exchange rate for us and raise in gas prices here. 

A couple of iguanas went running up the tree right next to us. I'm guessing but maybe they were a boy and girl. This one didn't have much color to it and just sat and looked around. 

This one was colorful and was showing off

Couldn't get a good picture but he was showing the colorful expanding part under his chin. 

We took a short trip into Centro. Not where we'd planned to go but...For some reason the city decided to remove the two huge topes that were right in the middle of town. I've posted pictures of them. They could make a car go airborne if it went over them too fast. Well they were supposed to be removed in a day or two. Now it is going on two weeks. Two of the busiest weeks in the year for out of town tourists. What a mess with traffic. Supposed to be done today. Didn't see any one working, just the cop making sure no one drove through the tape. 

We were going to go to a restaurant in the Golden Zone for breakfast, but absolutely no parking any where around it. Even the big parking lot was full up. So we ended up going to Centro.  Just a building I like. 

Ended up in the Plazuela Machado for breakfast at Gaia. There was one cruise ship in town too. Lots of people on this tour. 

After breakfast we went in the Panama bakery around the corner. Just some of their good stuff for sale.

A good size cake. Bill bought a small one like it. Also a small carrot cake for me and some cookies. and stuffed pastries.

Isn't he sweet? The bag is full of pastries. 

This picture didn't turn out as good as I'd hoped. These are hummingbirds all made of wood and painted. Beautiful I want one!  The wings are so thin almost like paper. 

Better pictures of some new or redone murals. 

No idea why I took this picture. But we were on a different road then we usually take - due to traffic jams. 

There they are again. 

Heavy traffic in town now. So if we do go any where near downtown or Centro we'll be taking public transportation. If we go to market it will be EARLY in morning.People in town from as far north as Monterey and as far south as Mexico City. They will be here until January 6th.The weather here remains cooler than we are used to with lots of cold wind from the north. Okay during middle of day with the sun, really cools down in afternoon and night.